Abortion motion at the British Medical Association Annual Representatives Meeting

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 11th Jun 2007

Local Liberal Democrat MP, Dr Evan Harris, is to propose a motion at the British Medical Association (BMA) Annual Representatives Meeting in Torquay at the end of the month to seek BMA support for the modernisation of Britain's 40 year old abortion laws.

Dr Harris, who has been elected by doctors to the BMA's Medical Ethics Committee, said:

"The 1967 Abortion Act has served women well over the years but recent medical advances and changes in medical ethics means that the law needs reforming."

Dr Harris, who is - due to his expertise in medical ethics - one of the representatives of the Oxford BMA division at the doctor's conference will propose a motion calling for:

• First trimester abortions to be available on the same basis of informed consent as other treatments and therefore no longer requiring two doctors' signatures.

• Allowing suitably trained healthcare professional, such as midwives and nurses, to carry out first trimester abortions.

• Relaxing the rules on 'approved premises' where abortions can be carried out with regard to first trimester abortions.

It is already BMA policy that lawful abortion be extended to Northern Ireland.

"It is wrong that women in one part of the United Kingdom should not have access to safe legal abortions without having to travel hundreds of miles to the mainland."

The respected Medical Ethics Committee of the BMA has published a paper supporting the proposals

Dr Harris said:

"In 1967, the law stated that only doctors could perform abortions, but with the increasing skills of nurses and midwives and new interventions such as the so-called 'abortion pill', restricting the work to doctors is irrational and inefficient."

"Abortions in the first 12 weeks are both safer and simpler for the woman and many people believe are ethically more acceptable than later abortions so we should bring the UK law into line with most European countries which allow first trimester abortion without the need for women to meet specific medical criteria or get the permission of two doctors."

Dr Harris is working with MPs on the Conservative, Labour and Nationalist parties to ensure that abortion law reform is properly debated when the Governments' new Embryology Bill comes before parliament in the next session.